the anti-transhumanist books

From: Ramez Naam (mez@apexnano.com)
Date: Sat Jul 19 2003 - 10:22:08 MDT

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    I just re-read the triad of anti-transhumanist books that came out in
    the last couple years:
     
    - Leon Kass: Life, Liberty, and the Defense of Dignity
     
    - Francis Fukuyama: Our Posthuman Future
     
    - Bill McKibben: Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age
     
    I'm struck by how different the three books are, and how they're each
    dangerous in their own way:
     
    Kass's book is the best selling and is the only one of the three
    that's grounded in religious arguments. In a way, he's 'preaching to
    the choir'. Any non-religious person reading his book is going to see
    pretty quickly that his arguments are really all based on his
    spiritual beliefs. Yet there's a large segment of the world that
    agrees with him. And because Kass is chairman of the PCBE, his words
    carry weight disproportionate to their actual persuasiveness.
     
    McKibben's book is the most populist and most liberal. He comes at
    things from an environmental perspective and appeals to a very wide
    audience. His arguments are very simple and very emotional. His book
    has a lot of heat and relatively little light. In particular, he
    distorts scientific reality to make his points. In that respect, he
    and Kass are very similar. But McKibben is more of a ranter, more of
    a rabble rouser, with less of the intellectual tone that keeps Kass
    from appealing to the masses.
     
    Fukuyama's book is far and away the best and most cogent of the three.
    Fukuyama, unlike the others, demonstrates that he understands the
    science and technology. His arguments are secular and relatively
    thoughtful. Frankly, I think a lot of the issues he brings up are
    legitimate. The technologies we advocate WILL cause problems. I
    believe that the cost / benefit calculation comes down clearly on the
    side of pursuing those technologies. But that doesn't mean we can
    ignore the costs.
     
    In any case, I think these books are worth reading. Particularly
    Fukuyama's and McKibben's. I recommend them to any transhumanist.
     
    mez



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